Here is my new Christmas story. I hope you enjoy it. God bless you always.

I came across an old Christmas picture the other day. It is from the early 1970's. It is of my brother and me. We are standing there dressed in ugly plaid pants. I am wearing my Snoopy sweatshirt while my brother is in a red sweater. We both have weird haircuts. My Mom actually used a bowl over our heads to get the lines straight so our hair looks just like a bowl. My 12 year old brother, Eddie is trying to look all serious with his arm across my shoulders. I have a happy but closed mouth smile on my face because I was still missing a few front teeth. We are standing in front of the scraggly, pine tree my Dad had cut down to be our Christmas tree. It is covered in lights, tinsel, and candy canes on my Nana’s enclosed front porch. And under it are that year’s gifts wrapped and ready to be opened on Christmas day.

What gets me the most about that picture is that I can’t remember a single gift that I got that year. I am sure there were a few toys as well as the new socks, and warm winter clothes that we got each year, but I can’t remember what they were. The one thing I can remember, however, is that I felt loved in that drafty, old house. I felt loved by my Mom. I felt loved by my Dad. I felt loved by my Nana. I felt loved by my two brothers. And I felt loved by our dog, Duke. It was that gift of being loved that I never forgot. It was that gift of being loved that I have carried in my heart all this time. It was that gift of being loved that helped me become who I am today. All that other stuff was just things. It was that feeling of being loved that made the holiday so special. It was that feeling of being loved that made every day there feel like Christmas.

The gift of Love is the greatest gift you can give and the most wonderful gift you can receive. Love is the gift that our Heavenly Father gave us on that very first Christmas over 2000 years ago. Love is the gift we are all called to share as well, each and everyday of our lives.